Submitted by: Emily Boyd (emilyboyd at emilyboyd dot com) Sponsored by: Google Summer of Code 2005
550 lines
26 KiB
Text
550 lines
26 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" [
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<!ENTITY base CDATA "..">
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<!ENTITY date "$FreeBSD: www/en/marketing/os-comparison.sgml,v 1.7 2005/07/22 15:39:14 remko Exp $">
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<!ENTITY email 'marketing'>
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<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows 2000">
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<!ENTITY % navincludes SYSTEM "../includes.navabout.sgml"> %navincludes;
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<!ENTITY % includes SYSTEM "../includes.sgml"> %includes;
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<!ENTITY % developers SYSTEM "../developers.sgml"> %developers;
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]>
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<html>
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&header;
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<h1>How does your OS compare?</h1>
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<table class="tblbasic">
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th> </th>
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<th> FreeBSD </th>
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<th> Linux </th>
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<th> Windows 2000 </th>
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</tr>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Reliability</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">FreeBSD is extremely robust.
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There are numerous testimonials of active servers with uptimes
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measured in years. The new <strong>Soft
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Updates</strong><sup><small><a href="#1">1</a></small></sup>
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file system optimizes disk I/O for high performance, yet still
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ensures reliability for transaction based applications, such as
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databases.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">
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Linux is well known for its reliability. Servers often stay
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up for years. However, disk I/O is non-synchronous by default,
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which is less reliable for transaction based operations, and can
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produce a corrupted filesystem after a system crash or power
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failure. But for the average user, Linux is a very dependable
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OS.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">
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All Windows users are familiar with the "Blue Screen of
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Death". Poor reliability is one of the major drawbacks of
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Windows. Some of the major issues have been fixed in Windows
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XP, but "code bloat" has introduced many more reliability
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problems. Windows XP uses a lot of system resources and it is
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very difficult to keep the system up for more than a couple of
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months without it reverting to a crawl as memory gets corrupted
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and filesystems fragmented.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Performance</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">
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FreeBSD is the system of choice for high performance network
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applications. FreeBSD will outperform other systems when
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running on equivalent hardware. The largest and busiest public
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server on the Internet at ftp.freesoftware.com, uses FreeBSD to
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serve more than 1.2 terabyte/day of downloads. FreeBSD is used
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by Yahoo!, Qwest, and many others as their main server OS
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because of its ability to handle heavy network traffic with high
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performance and rock stable reliability.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]">
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Linux performs well for most applications, however the
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performance is not so optimal under heavy network load. The
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network performance of Linux is 20-30% below the capability of
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FreeBSD running on the same hardware. The situation has
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improved somewhat recently and the 2.4 release of the Linux
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kernel introduced a new virtual memory system based on the same
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concepts as the FreeBSD VM system. Since both operating systems
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are open source, beneficial technologies are shared and for this
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reason the performance of Linux and FreeBSD is rapidly
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converging.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">
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Windows is adequate for routine desktop applications, but it
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is unable to handle heavy network loads. A few organizations
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try to make it work as an Internet server. For instance,
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barnesandnoble.com uses Windows NT, as can be verified by the
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error messages that their webserver produces, such as this
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recent example <strong><tt>Error Message: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL
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Server Driver][SQL Server] Can't allocate space for object
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'queryHistory' in database 'web' because the 'default' segment
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is full.</tt></strong>. For their own "Hotmail" Internet
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servers, Microsoft used FreeBSD for many years.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Security</td>
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<td><p><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">FreeBSD has been the subject
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of a massive auditing project for several years. All of the
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critical system components have been checked and rechecked for
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security-related errors. The entire system is open source so
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the security of the system can and has been verified by third
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parties. A default FreeBSD installation has yet to be affected
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by a single CERT advisory in 2000<small><sup><a
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href="#3">3</a></sup></small>.</p>
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<p>FreeBSD also has a notion of kernel security levels, virtual
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server jails, capabilities, ACLs, a very robust packet filtering
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firewall system, and intrusion detection tools.</p></td>
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<td><p><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">The open source nature of
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Linux allows anyone to inspect the security of the code and make
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changes, but in reality the Linux codebase is modified too
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rapidly by inexperienced programmers. There is no formal code
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review policy and for this reason Linux has been susceptible to
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nearly every Unix-based CERT advisory of the year. This problem
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is compounded by the fact that distributions like Red Hat tend
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to turn on notoriously insecure services by default.</p>
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<p>However, Linux does include a very robust packet filtering
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firewall system and a competent administrator can remove unsafe
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services.</p></td>
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<td><p><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">Microsoft claims that their
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products are secure, but they offer no guarantee, and their
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software is not available for inspection or peer review. Since
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Windows is <em>closed source</em> there is no way for users to
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fix or diagnose any of the security compromises that are regularly
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published about Microsoft systems.</p>
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<p>Microsoft Windows has been affected by a very large number of
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known security holes that have cost companies millions of
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dollars.</p></td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Filesystem</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">FreeBSD uses the Berkeley Fast
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Filesystem, which is a little more complex than Linux's ext2.
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It offers a better way to ensure filesystem data integrity,
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mainly with the "softupdates" option. This option decreases
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synchronous I/O and increases asynchronous I/O because writes to
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an FFS filesystem aren't synced on a sector basis but according
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to the filesystem structure. This ensures that the filesystem
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is always coherent between two updates. The FreeBSD filesystem
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also supports file flags, which can stop a would-be intruder
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dead in his tracks. There are several flags that you can add to
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a file such as the immutable flag. The immutable (schg) flag
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won't allow any alteration to the file or directory unless you
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remove it. Other very handy flags are append only (sappnd),
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cannot delete (sunlnk), and archive (arch). When you combine
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these with the kernel security level option, you have a nearly
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impenetrable system.</td>
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<td><p><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">The Linux ext2 filesystem gets
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its performance from having an asynchronous mount. You can
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mount FreeBSD FFS filesystems as asynchronous but this is very
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dangerous and no seasoned Unix administrator would do this. It
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is amazing that Linux is designed this way by default. Often a
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hard crash permanently damages a mount. FreeBSD or Solaris can
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sustain a very hard crash with only minor data loss, and the
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filesystem will be remountable with few problems.</p>
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<p>There are several new journalling filesystems for Linux that
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fix some of these issues.</p></td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">The Microsoft FAT filesystem and
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the newer NTFS are both plagued by over 20 years of backwards
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compatibility with the earliest of PC-based filesystems. These
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filesystems were not designed for today's demanding server
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applications, they weren't even designed with a multi-user OS or
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networking in mind!</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Device Drivers</td>
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<td><p><img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]">The FreeBSD bootloader can load
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binary drivers at boot-time. This allows third-party driver
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manufacturers to distribute binary-only driver modules that can
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be loaded into any FreeBSD system. Due to the open-source
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nature of FreeBSD, it is very easy to develop device drivers for
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new hardware. Unfortunately, most device manufacturers will
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only release binaries for Microsoft operating systems. This
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means that it can take several months after a hardware device
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hits the market until a native device driver is available.</p>
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<p>Fortunately, FreeBSD also includes full NDIS API compatibility,
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so that binary Windows network device drivers can be loaded into
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the FreeBSD kernel directly.</p>
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</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">The Linux community intentionally
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makes it difficult for hardware manufacturers to release
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binary-only drivers. This is meant to encourage hardware
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manufacturers to develop open-source device drivers.
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Unfortunately most vendors have been unwilling to release the
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source for their drivers so it is very difficult for Linux users
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to use vendor supplied drivers at all.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">Microsoft has excellent
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relationships with hardware vendors. There are often conflicts
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when using device drivers on different versions of Microsoft
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Windows, but overall Windows users have excellent access to
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third party device drivers.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Commercial Applications</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]">The number of commercial
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applications for FreeBSD is growing rapidly, but is still below
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what is available for Windows. In addition to native
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applications, FreeBSD can also run programs compiled for Linux,
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SCO Unix, and BSD/OS.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]">Many new commercial applications
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are available for Linux, and more are being developed.
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Unfortunately, Linux can only run binaries that are specifically
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compiled for Linux. It is unable to run programs compiled for
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FreeBSD, SCO Unix, or other popular operating systems without
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significant effort.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">There are thousands of
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applications available for Windows, far more than for any other
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OS. Nearly all commercial desktop applications run on Windows,
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and many of them are only available for Windows. If you have an
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important application that only runs on Windows, then you may
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have no choice but to run Windows.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Free Applications</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">There are many, many gigabytes of
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free software applications available for FreeBSD. FreeBSD
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includes thousands of software packages and an extensive ports
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collection, all with complete source code. Many people consider
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the FreeBSD Ports Collection to be the most accessible and
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easiest to use library of free software packages available
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anywhere. In fact, Gentoo Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and many
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other operating systems have borrowed and extended the famous
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FreeBSD Ports Collection.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">There are huge numbers of free
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programs available for Linux. All GNU software runs on both
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Linux and FreeBSD without modification. Some of the free
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programs for Linux differ between distributions, because Linux
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does not have a central ports collection.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">The amount of free Windows
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software is much less than what is available for Unix. Many
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Windows applications are provided as "shareware", without
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source code, so the programs cannot be customized, debugged,
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improved, or extended by the user.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Development Environment</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">FreeBSD includes an extensive
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collection of developer tools. You get a complete C/C++
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development system (editor, compiler, debugger, profiler, etc.)
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and powerful Unix development tools for Java, HTTP, Perl,
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Python, TCL/TK, Awk, Sed, etc. All of these are free, and are
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included in the basic FreeBSD installation. All come with full
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source code.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]">Linux includes all the same
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development tools as FreeBSD, with compilers and interpreters
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for every common programming language, all the GNU programs,
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including the powerful GNU C/C++ Compiler, Emacs editor, and GDB
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debugger. Unfortunately, due to the very splintered nature of
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Linux, applications that you compile on one system (Red Hat) may
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not work on another Linux system (Slackware).</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">Very few development tools are
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included with Windows XP. Most need to be purchased separately,
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and are rarely compatible with each other.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Development Infrastructure</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">FreeBSD is an advanced BSD Unix
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operating system. The source code for the entire system is
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available in a centralized source code repository running under
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CVS. A large team (300+) of senior developers has write access
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to this repository and they coordinate development by reviewing
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and committing the best changes of the development community at
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large. FreeBSD is engineered to find elegant solutions for
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overall goals, rather than quick hacks to add new functionality.
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Since FreeBSD is a complete open-source operating system, rather
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than just a kernel, you can recompile and reinstall the entire
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system by simply typing one command, "make world".</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]">Linux is a Unix-like kernel that
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must be combined with the GNU system to make a complete
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operating system. Linux does not use any version control system
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so all bug-fixes and enhancements must be emailed back and forth
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on mailing lists and ultimately submitted to the one person
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(Linus) who has authority to commit the code to the tree. Due
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to the overwhelming amount of code that gets written, it is
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impossible for one person to adequately quality control all of
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the pending changes. For this reason there is a lot of code in
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Linux that was hastily written and would never have been
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accepted into a more conservative operating system.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">Microsoft Windows is a
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<em>closed-source</em> operating system driver by market demand
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rather than technical merit. New technologies are rushed into
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the product before they have been properly designed or fully
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implemented. Very little is known about the internal
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development infrastructure of Microsoft but the "blue-screen of
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death" speaks for itself.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Support</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">Several organizations, including
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<a href="http://www.freebsdmall.com">FreeBSD Mall</a>, offer a
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wide range of support options for FreeBSD. In addition to 24x7
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professional support, there is a large amount of free, informal
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support available through Usenet newsgroups and mailing lists,
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such as questions@freebsd.org. Once a problem is found, source
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code patches are often available within a few hours.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">Many organizations provide
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professional support for Linux. All the major Linux vendors
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offer some level of support, and several offer full 24x7
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service. There are many forums where Linux questions are
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answered for free, such as newsgroups and mailing lists. As a
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last resort, you can always use the source to track down and fix
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a problem yourself.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]">Although support is available for
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Windows XP, you should be prepared to spend as long as an hour on
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hold, with no guarantee that your problem will be resolved.
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Because of the <em>closed source</em> nature of Windows, there
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is no informal, free support available, and bugs can only be
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fixed on Microsoft's schedule, not yours. Windows XP is
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not updated frequently, you may wait years for bugs to be
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fixed.</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td class="category">Price and Total Cost of Ownership</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">FreeBSD can be downloaded from
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the Internet for free. Or it can be purchased on a four CDROM
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set along with several gigabytes of applications for $40. All
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necessary documentation is included. Support is available for
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free or for very low cost. There is no user licensing, so you
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can quickly bring additional computers online. This all adds up
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to a very low total cost of ownership.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]">Linux is free. Several companies
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offer commercial aggregations at very low cost. Applications
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and documentation is available for little or no cost. There are
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no licensing restrictions, so Linux can be installed on as many
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systems as you like for no additional cost. Linux's total cost
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of ownership is very low.</td>
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<td><img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]">The server edition of Windows XP
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costs nearly $700. Even basic applications cost extra. Users
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often spend many thousands of dollars for programs that are
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included for free with Linux or FreeBSD. Documentation is
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expensive, and very little on-line documentation is provided. A
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license is required for every computer, which means delays and
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administrative overhead. The initial learning curve for simple
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administration tasks is smaller than with Unix, but it also
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requires a lot more work to keep the system running with any
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significant work load.</td>
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</tr>
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<TR>
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<TH>Total</TH>
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<TD>
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<H2>FreeBSD</H2>
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<img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]"><B><BIG>= 8</BIG></B><BR>
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<img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]"><B><BIG>= 2</BIG></B><BR>
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<img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]"><B><BIG>= 0</BIG></B><BR>
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</TD>
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<TD>
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<H2>Linux</H2>
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<img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]"><B><BIG>= 4</BIG></B><BR>
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<img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]"><B><BIG>= 4</BIG></B><BR>
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<img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]"><B><BIG>= 2</BIG></B><BR>
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</TD>
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<TD>
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<H2>Windows 2000</H2>
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<img src="../gifs/smiley.png" alt="[Great]"><B><BIG>= 2</BIG></B><BR>
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<img src="../gifs/plain.png" alt="[OK]"><B><BIG>= 1</BIG></B><BR>
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<img src="../gifs/frowny.png" alt="[Bad]"><B><BIG>= 7</BIG></B><BR>
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</TD>
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</TR>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<h1>Footnotes</h1>
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<a name="1"></a>
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<h2>Filesystem</h2>
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<p>FreeBSD uses FFS, the Berkeley Fast File System, with the addition
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of "Soft Updates" for performance and consistency. FreeBSD
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5.0-CURRENT (the development branch), gives user the ability to
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automatically snapshot file systems, as well as the ability to store
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extended attributes on files, in turn supporting other features such
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as Access Control Lists (ACLs). A paper title "Journaling Versus
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Soft Updates: Asynchronous Meta-data Protection in File Systems"
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presented at the USENIX 2000 Technical Conference discusses the
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performance and consistency differences between journaled and soft
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updates consistency mechanisms. This paper is available online from
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<a
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href="http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~gnager/papers/usenix2000.ps">http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~gnager/papers/usenix2000.ps</a>.
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This paper also discusses two different journaling implementations
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based on FFS and developed on FreeBSD. Clearly, FreeBSD is at the
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forefront of filesystem research and this is the source of many of
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its performance and reliability advantages.</p>
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<p>For more information about Soft Updates, please see:</p>
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<p>"Soft Updates: A Technique for Eliminating Most Synchronous Writes
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in the Fast Filesystem" by Marshall Kirk McKusick and Gregory
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R. Ganger.<br/> <a
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href="http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~gnager/papers/mckusick99.ps">http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~gnager/papers/mckusick99.ps</a>.</p>
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<a name="2"></a>
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<h2>Performance Benchmarks</h2>
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<p>Numerous benchmarks have continued to show FreeBSD's clear
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advantage for network performance. Yahoo!, Xoom.com, Qwest, and some
|
|
of our other largest customers have published results showing the
|
|
clear case for using FreeBSD in the enterprise. It's important to
|
|
understand that benchmarking is just a game, and that for real
|
|
performance comparisons you need to perform real-world test. However,
|
|
it's easy to find published benchmarks on the Internet which show
|
|
FreeBSD with a commanding lead over the competition:</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Gartner Group Comparisons showing FreeBSD 20-30% faster than
|
|
Linux on identical hardware: <a
|
|
href="http://advisor.gartner.com/n_inbox/hotcontent/hc_2121999_3.html#h8">http://advisor.gartner.com/n_inbox/hotcontent/hc_2121999_3.html#h8</a>.</li>
|
|
|
|
<li>Filesystem Benchmarking with PostMark from Network Appliance:
|
|
<a
|
|
href="http://www.shub-internet.org/brad/FreeBSD/postmark.html">http://www.shub-internet.org/brad/FreeBSD/postmark.html</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li>Is FreeBSD a Superior Server Platform to Linux? by Nathan
|
|
Boeger:
|
|
<a
|
|
href="http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2001/01/infrrevu/">http://www.webtechniques.com/archives/2001/01/infrrevu/</a></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>"Flexibility, in-house expertise, price/performance, and
|
|
manageability," says Filo. "Those are just a few of the reasons why
|
|
the Intel Architecture and FreeBSD appeal to use. By combining
|
|
these platforms, we're able to deliver better, faster, and more
|
|
innovative solutions than our competitors." - David Filo, Chief
|
|
Yahoo<br/>
|
|
<a
|
|
href="http://www.intel.com/ebusiness/casestudies/yahoo/buscase.htm">http://www.intel.com/ebusiness/casestudies/yahoo/buscase.htm</a></p></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<a name="3"></a>
|
|
<h2>Security</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT, studies Internet
|
|
security vulnerabilities, provides incident response services to sites
|
|
that have been victims of attack, publishes a variety of security
|
|
alerts, does research in wide-networked computing, and develops
|
|
information and training to help improve security at Internet
|
|
sites.<p>
|
|
|
|
<p><strong>CERT Advisories in 2000 that affected Linux:</strong></p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-22 - Input Validation Problems in LPRng</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-21 - Denial-of-Service Vulnerability in TCP/IP
|
|
Stacks</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-20 - Multiple Denial-of-Service Problems in ISC BIND</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-17 - Input Validation Problem in rpc.statd</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-13 - Two Input Validation Problems in FTPD</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-06 - Multiple Buffer Overflows in Kerberos Authenticated
|
|
Services</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-03 - Continuing Compromises of DNS servers</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p><strong>CERT Advisories in 2000 that affected Windows:</strong></p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-16 - Microsoft 'IE Script'/Access/OBJECT Tag
|
|
Vulnerability</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-14 - Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express Cache Bypass
|
|
Vulnerability</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-12 - HHCtrl ActiveX Control Allows Local Files to be
|
|
Executed</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-10 - Inconsistent Warning Messages in Internet
|
|
Explorer</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-07 - Microsoft Office 2000 UA ActiveX Control
|
|
Incorrectly Marked "Safe for Scripting"</li>
|
|
<li>CA-2000-04 - Love Letter Worm</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>For more information about CERT and potential security exploits for
|
|
your operating system, please see <a
|
|
href="http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/">http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>For more information about some of the enhanced security features
|
|
of FreeBSD, please see <a
|
|
href="http://www.trustedbsd.org">http://www.trustedbsd.org</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<a name="4"></a>
|
|
<h2>Ports Collection</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Even with all the hyper about open standards, getting a program to
|
|
compile on various Unix platforms can be a tricky task.
|
|
Occasionally, you might be lucky enough to find that the program
|
|
you want compiles cleanly on your system, install everything into
|
|
all the right directories, and run flawlessly "out-of-the-box", but
|
|
this behavior is somewhat rare. Most of the time, you find yourself
|
|
needing to make modifications in order to get the program to work.
|
|
This is where the FreeBSD Ports Collection comes to the rescue.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The general idea behind the Ports Collection is to eliminate all of
|
|
the messy steps involved with making things work properly so that
|
|
the installation is simple and painless. With the Ports Collection,
|
|
all of the hard work has already been done for you, and you are able
|
|
to install any of the Ports Collection ports by simply typing 'make
|
|
install'.</p>
|
|
|
|
<!-- XXX use os.numports entity -->
|
|
|
|
<p>The Ports Collection provides a makefile skeleton that describes
|
|
where to download the software and how to compile and install it.
|
|
There are currently over 11,500 applications in the FreeBSD
|
|
Ports tree and with a single command the ports mechanism will
|
|
automatically download the software source code, perform a checksum,
|
|
uncompress the software, apply any FreeBSD-specific patches,
|
|
configure the software, run the compilation, install the software,
|
|
and clean up after itself! Ports can of course depend on other
|
|
ports which are built automatically in the same fashion and binary
|
|
packages can be used as well. The FreeBSD Ports Collection was
|
|
recognized very early on as an elegant method to deal with a complex
|
|
problem so it's functionality has been shared with the other BSD
|
|
Unix systems and some Linux distributions as well.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>This document was prepared by Bob Bruce and Murray Stokely, with
|
|
input from Matt Dillon, Nathan dude, and many others.</p>
|
|
|
|
&footer;
|
|
</body>
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</html>
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